Bob Barker, Legendary Game Show Host, Dead At 99

Born December 12, 1923 in the small town of Darrington near Seattle, Washington, Barker's father died when he was young, and he spent his childhood until 8th grade on the Rosebud Native American reservation with his mother (via Biography). When his mother remarried in 1931, they moved to Springfield, Missouri, and he went to Springfield Senior High and then stayed there to go to Drury College, now Drury University, graduating in 1947 (via Springfield News-Leader).

While in high school, he met his wife Dorothy Jo Gideon, and their first date was to see Ella Fitzgerald (via Springfield News-Leader). The two eloped in 1945 when Barker was on leave from the U.S. Navy (via Closer Weekly). Barker trained at eight different bases as a pilot, but he never saw combat, and he once said "I was a naval aviator, a fighter pilot. I completed all facets of my training, including my qualifying landings on a carrier. I was all ready to go, and when the enemy heard that I was headed for the Pacific, they surrendered. That was the end of World War II (via DNAS Museum News).

Dorothy was undoubtedly the love of Barker's life, and after she died of lung cancer in 1981 at the age of 57, a source told Radar Online that he "never got over" the loss (via Closer Weekly). Adding, "They were married 36 years and she was the love of his life. He never remarried. He and Dorothy Jo were together since age 15 and he told me, 'I just felt there should only ever be one Mrs. Bob Barker.'"